PRIDE gives students a second chance at Prom

by Courtney Deeren - Copy Editor

Tue, Apr 23rd 2019 11:00 pm

The New York Room in Cooper Hall was decked out in all things pride on the evening of Friday, April 19. Rainbow balloons floated across the floor, streamers attached to air vents fluttered around and a flag representing each group of the LGBTQ community hung from the large windows. Garnishes set up a buffet-style spread opposite the flags and music boomed over the speakers. All this was a product of Brockport Pride Association’s event, Second Chance Prom.

The event was loosely 90s themed, with many attendants showing up in their best outfits reminiscent of the decade; some dressed up while others came casual. People couldn’t resist moving in their seats and singing along when “Wannabe” by The Spice Girls came on. Once the food was ready, people wasted no time making their way to the line to get themselves a plate.

Senior and treasurer of the club, Matt Miller spoke on the club’s activities this past semester.

“Our president transferred at the end of last semester,” Miller said.

The club didn’t have elections then, but instead decided to function as one e-board.

“We call ourselves the e-board, we’re all putting in the same amount of work,” Miller said.

Miller also spoke on the lack of budget the club had. At the end of last academic year’s budget season, multiple groups were left without funding due to various complications.

“Many of the clubs were affected,” Miller said. “We usually do Sexy Bingo and other big events throughout the year, but we weren’t able to because you have to pay for the drag queens.”

The Second Chance Prom was able to be put on because they drew from the reserves.

“We are part of service council,” Miller said. “So we were able to borrow from their reserves.”

While Brockport Pride Association has still been able to host some events collaboratively throughout the semester with organizations such as Gender Equity Movement, they are looking forward to planning Second Chance Prom more annually.

Junior e-board member Caitlin Wong echoed this idea.

“This is the last year we will call it Second Chance Prom,” Wong said. “We want to make it more age inclusive for juniors, seniors and graduate students.”

Wong also said that they hope to make the event more of a semi-formal dress code. Wong also spoke on the planning of the event.

“We have to start probably about a month to a month and a half ahead,” Wong said. “The food and event space have to be booked in advance. With it being the end of the year it’s harder to get spaces because all the clubs are planning their end of the year events.”

Early in the planning stages they were talking about having the event in the gallery but because of some clubs using the space and not cleaning it properly BSG closed it off. When they ultimately decided to use the New York Room, they learned that Garnishes comes with the room.

“The New York Room equals Garnishes,” Wong said. “If you get the event catered by somewhere else you have to pay $100 per hour to rent the space.”

Overall, Wong was impressed by the turnout.

“I was expecting about 20 people,” Wong said. “It was sort of last minute, the flyers were only up for about a week, the tickets were only available for a week, but this is an awesome turnout.”

Wong said she likes that the event is starting out small.

“You need to snowball to make a giant ice man,” Wong said. “I like word of mouth, I like that people are here making their own fun. They’re just making it fun for themselves.”

It was evident that people were having fun, whether they were dancing or simply standing with their group of friends, talking and laughing. One member of the club had brought her dog to the event and he was a big hit. Wearing a bowtie and glow stick necklace, everyone wanted their photo taken with him.

Another member of the e-board, sophomore Emily Kincade spoke on the importance of an event like this.

“A lot of LGBT people didn’t get to go to prom as who they wanted to be,” Kincade said. “We wanted to have a fun night for people, even if you aren’t a member of the LGBTQ community, you could just come and have a fun night.”